[Engineering Feature] The 2008 Technolympics
Everyone expects a good political demonstration or two at next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing. Maybe even a drug or doping scandal. There may also be complaints about the environment. And, you can count on some controversy surrounding all the advanced technology at the Games. Yeah, technology. Much of the attention—and tension—is expected to center on the “White Cube.” The drama in this spectacular swimming venue, which was designed and built for...
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Ron Schneiderman
[Technology Report] Shrinking ICs Need High Density In A Package Deal
The push is on for IC packages in smaller form factors, not only length- and width-wise, but also height-wise. Hence, the term “3D ICs.” Smaller form factors require greater density, and that means stacking chips and boards on top of each other in a 3D form. As ICs downsize from quad flat packs (QFPs) to ball-grid arrays (BGAs) and further down the line, fewer stacks and external I/Os are needed (Fig....
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Roger Allan
[Leapfrog: First Look] Smart As A Brick—A New Approach Rejuvenates IBA
By moving digital feedback and PMBus control upstream from point-of-load (POL) dc-dc converters in intermediate-bus-architecture (IBA) power-distribution schemes, Ericsson Power Modules may have sidestepped a patent problem that has all but dried up new IBA developments. The brains are now in the formerly “dumb” bricks that step down 48 V dc to whatever the POLs need. In addition to jumpstarting a stalled digital IBA, Ericsson’s engineers have improved system...
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Don Tuite
[Design View / Design Solution] Floorplanning A Power Delivery Network With Spice
Greater system complexity and ever-higher clock speeds continue to push IC power consumption to the limit. And though every generation escalates the demand on IC current, voltage levels drop due to steadily declining feature sizes on the silicon. Those lower voltage levels cause the power-supply noise margin (typically 5% from nominal) to shrink across the chips’ power-supply terminals. A noise level of 250 mV might be acceptable for a 5-V power...
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Jitesh Shah
[Ideas For Design] Use A Boost Converter To Create An Auto-Dimmable LED Flashlight
Due to their light output and long life, high-brightness LEDs are well-suited for use in flashlights. Typically, the LEDs are driven with a constant current. So when the battery voltage drops, the flashlight just stops working. In some situations, this could be dangerous. It would be nice to have a flashlight that would automatically dim when the battery voltage drops. Just like a traditional flashlight, it would indicate a low-battery condition and...
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Jianwen Shao
[Ideas For Design] Nanophosphate Batteries Create High-Energy, Rechargeable Source
This design shows how we combined four 36-V DeWalt DC9360 nanophosphate battery packs in a series-parallel configuration to create a robust, high-energy power source. Originally intended for the prototype Neodymics Cyclemotor electric bicycle kit, this power source may be used in other applications. Output power was at least 1.6 kW at 66 V, energy capacity was about 300 W-hr, and recharge time was one hour. Also, the claimed cycle life exceeds 2000. The...
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Jeff L. Radtke
[Ideas For Design] Add On-Board Power Measurement Capability To Telecom Equipment
This idea shows how to monitor input voltage and current consumption for telecommunications equipment powered by two independent feeds: -48 V (A) and -48 V (B). Each feed supplies at least -42.5 V to -56.5 V, and for redundancy the feeds are ORed on the module. For maintenance and support purposes, it’s important to monitor input voltage, the feeds’ presence, and the module’s power consumption. ...
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Samuel Kerem
[POV: Point Of View] Consumer Video Chat: Hype Or Reality?
How can electronics designers capture the hearts and minds of the average consumer with video chat products? The concept of combining video and voice in two-way consumer communications devices is nothing new. For decades, there have been numerous attempts at bringing viable video telephony solutions to the market. Resulting products have ranged from the 1980s AT&T standalone video phone with its 33.6-kbit/s analog modem to recent broadband-based models...
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Kourosh Amiri
[Editorial] CEA Gives Downtown Manhattan A Digital Boost
In the first installment of what promises to be a yearly commitment to New York City’s downtown area, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) kicked off Digital Downtown for press and analysts. Digital Downtown was conceived as a three-day showcase of consumer technology, open and free to the general public. The first day of the event, June 12, was warm and sunny. I took a subway to the general area and then had to walk quite a few blocks. As I continued...
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Joseph Desposito
[Pease Porridge] Bob's Mailbox
HI BOB, I am trying to build a test circuit that will produce a pulse current from a capacitor. My target is around 200 A at 100 ms. Is this possible? We have an instrument called a PVI that does the same only at lower current and at shorter duration, but I don’t know how it is being controlled. I hope you can give me advice or a basic control circuit that I can start working on. –ROMMEL C. VILLON HELLO, MR. VILLON, You...
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Bob Pease
[TechView: Communications] Powerline Modem Uses OFDM To Overpower Noise And Transmit Data Reliably
Powerline communications (PLC) has been available for many years, but it hasn’t always lived up to its expectations. Electrical utilities regularly use the technology to monitor and control ac power lines. Some companies have even tried offering broadband Internet services. But the high-speed limitations of the ac lines as well as noise and interference issues have impeded its progress. Still, designers can use PLC for monitoring and control...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Communications] Five-Port Ethernet Switch Targets Cost-Sensitive Low-Port Apps
The KSZ8995FQ five-port Ethernet switch from Micrel targets applications with low port counts like industrial Ethernet, managed media converters, and fiber to the premises (FTTP) customer premise equipment (CPE) where low bill of materials (BOM) costs are essential. It includes five full 10/100-Mbit/s transceivers, five media access control (MAC) units, a high-speed non-blocking switch fabric, a dedicated address lookup engine, and an on-chip...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Communications] Cut Cost, Power While Delivering 10-Gbit/s Ethernet Over 30 m Of Copper
Designers can deliver up to 10 Gbits/s of Ethernet over 30 m of copper cable thanks to a pair of developments from Phyworks Ltd. The 24 AWG twin-ax cable is terminated in SFP+ connector assemblies that employ the company’s PHY2060 active equalizer, CDR, and retimer IC (see the figure). The PHY2060 was originally developed for optical-fiber applications, but it adapts well to the copper...
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Louis E. Frenzel
[TechView: Digital] GPIO Expander Takes A Bite Out Of Power
The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Indians were known for attempting to recreate the “Midas touch,” whereby they would practice alchemy in their ongoing quest to find the perfect catalyst to turn lead to gold. Yet they forgot one important aspect of Midas’ legend. King Midas came to hate wealth and splendor and started worshipping Pan, the Greek god of nature. Thus, you could say that Midas came to love all things green. Catalyst Semiconductor had Pan in mind...
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Daniel Harris
[Design FAQs] Digital Potentiometers
Download the full article as a .PDF, sponsored by Analog What are digital potentiometers, and how are they used? Digital potentiometers are integrated circuits that implement a resistive ladder and a digital means of addressing a particular tap on the ladder that corresponds to the wiper position of a mechanical potentiometer. They’re used to...
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Don Tuite
[Engineering Essentials] Beyond The $10 Million Light Bulb
Signed into law in January, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 directs the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to establish the “Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prizes” (L Prize) competition. This contest is designed to spur the development of ultra-efficient, solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb. Specifically, the DOE hopes to replace the 60-W incandescent lamp and the PAR 38 halogen lamp. It also calls for a...
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Don Tuite
[EEPN In Electronic Design] Early Warning Is In The Air For Effective Thermal Management
For today’s makers of high-reliability equipment, increased performance requirements have meant packing more and more hardware onto boards and stuffing higher-density boards into shrinking chassis. As a result, the power density (power dissipated per unit area) of electronic products, measured by the ability to dissipate heat, has skyrocketed, increasing by a factor of 20 to 50 in the last few decades. More and more, hot new products mean hotter chips and...
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Rajesh Nair
[EEPN In Electronic Design] Projects And Partners Move OLEDs Closer To The Spotlight
Developments in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology are accelerating. Delivering its “final milestone,” the Organic LEDs for ICT and Lighting Applications (OLLA) organization has unveiled what it is calling Europe’s most efficient OLED lighting tile. Also on the other side of the Atlantic, Osram Opto Semiconductors is leading the charge to develop lower-cost volume production methods for OLEDs. The company is a principal player in a European...
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Mat Dirjish
[Lab Bench] What Will You Do With 1 TFLOP Of Double-Precision Power?
Don’t look now, but you may have a supercomputer on your desk. It’s hiding in your video card. While it won’t make your word processor faster, it may improve the transcoding speed when you’re moving movies to your mobile Internet device. Intel and AMD have been pushing multicore in the 64-bit x86 realm with only four-core chips at this point. Intel’s 80-core Polaris is designed to push the envelope, but AMD and NVidia have other ideas, at least when it ...
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William Wong
